Howdy

Farrrrrrk! Everything I'd ever dreamed of doing to a Z. Maybe more. WHACK!! "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT" OUCH! OK dear.

MmmmmmBEER! My car was an 1800 can car, not that I was counting, what's yours going to be? Looking good Jeff, the hatch is not so easy is it because the metal stretches when you weld it causing the skin to bow requiring shrinking and you can't get to the back easily. You make it look easy but I reckon you would have had to stuff around a bit to get it back into shape after welding the patches in. Keep up the pace mate and you'll have it done before those ankle biters start Saturday sport. Ahhhhhh!

Hey Jeff, really enjoyed reading your journal. That's a rare shell you have there, not many left in that condition. It's good to see you're putting so much love into it. Obviously have some good skills there as the work looks top notch. I reckon you nailed the colour. It's going to look awesome. I had a laugh about the green colour. It's a weird thing people talking about the green colour. Mum always told us kids don't buy a green car because they are more likely to be in a crash. I said Bahhhhh! But one day I brought a green 260z 2 seater and when I got it home I found a 1M long weld down the firewall under the dash. It was made up of 2 cars. Got rid of it real quick but I did like the colour.

I'm running a Motec M4 with full data logging & wideband O2 sensor. It's old but good. No flex fuel option which I really wouldn't use anyway as it isn't a road car. I can't run E85 without at least 1200 to 1500cc injectors. I'll see how she drives after tuning is done but will be close to the limits of the gearbox which is a PPG SR20 dogbox.

Hey Guys, finally finished the FJ20 rebuild and ran it up on the dyno. Ran it in (sort of - showed it who's boss, let it cool, teach it again, cool, repeat but don't over heat the rings, which has always worked out well for me) and some basic tuning, pretty hard on a chassis dyno as it was getting a bit warm so will get it perfect on the track. 223RWKW @ 12psi about 6000rpm ain't bad for a 2L 4cyl. Man she's going to make some grunt at 25psi. Didn't even get a chance to muck around with the timing so it is real conservative and will have to go back and deal with that after I work out how to hook up the knock sensor to it. I was a bit confused at the time why the boost was dropping off from around 6000rpm but a week later I found I had forgotten to replace the hose clamp holding the turbo to intercooler pipe so man that was a huge boost leak. Next step, I'll take it to Winton and finish the mixtures but maybe won't need 25psi because I think that might break the gearbox. Then again self control was never one of my strengths. So I got no secrets, the motor ended up: I saved the original block so 90mm bore (smidge over 2000cc) Wiseco forgies, 7.6:1 comp (yep I'm old school plus had these already in the shed), H beam rods, arp bolts, Cams are 259A (old Wade grind - didn't want such small lift but ended up with them so reckon I'll give them a go - 281 adv dur - 224@50th, 0.348" lift) made up some adjustable cam gears, heavier valve springs, Garrett GTX3076R turbo (ahhh why not) 0.82AR ex housing, 750cc injectors (and it's now I read up about how good E85 is so got to stick with the 98 for now) new second hand head which I cleaned up inlet ports, enlarged around the valve guides, ported & polished the exhaust ports, matched the manifolds and smoothed the seat transitions, unshrouded the valves in the combustion chambers, cc'd and polished the chambers and valves). I made up a manual cam chain tensioner because I reckon the blowup might have been avoided by less cam chain slackness on the over run. Cometic SS head gasket and a proper balance. Also ported the oil pump galleries which made a huge difference to the oil pressure and made up a trap-door sump with scrapers and extra capacity which won't hurt.

PM sent

Dam Greedy I say ..... GIMME SOME! Juzabit Go-on stoomuch!!!

Dude,are the S30 coilovers a full set? I can't tell from the picture. Does it include front & rear struts (complete) or just the sleeves? What rate are the springs?

Definitely keep the 2.9 1st gear if your not running over about 300Hp. The boxes are getting rare now. I don't think you can get syncros (I brought the last genuine ones in OZ about 15 years ago) but you can press off the syncro hubs and press on the brass syncro hubs from the later boxes and it makes a sweet shifting box. 3.3 1st gears suck in a Z.

I wouldn't worry about the rear gasket, I have never had a leak there and never used a gasket - silicon sealer is fine, just make sure you clean the surfaces really well. Also they often leak from the side seals which you can get from bearing suppliers (last one I got was about $15). Be careful with the ebay side seals as I brought one recently and it was no where near right. I think it was a front pinion seal. Make sure the breather is clear. Best thing to do is give it a good clean first then see where the leaks are - could be coming from the gear box.

Hey Andrew, welcome. Looks like a pretty good example of Straylian '70s history. What's wrong with the colour? This was probably a real Chick magnet back in the day. Just have a good check under the back seats for used prophylactics, moustache trimmings and IDs with the name Alvin. Also you might want to give the driver's seat a good clean.

Yep, it's a fine line between the 2 gates so quick shifts need to be really positive and planned. I need to work on that because my shifting resembles stirring a pudding bowl, unplanned, last second, I call it the grab & chuck method, probably a legacy from a lifetime of using Datsun shifters AKA 180B, 1600, 240z where you got to first catch the gear knob because it's floppin around the cabin and then chuck it in the general direction of the gear you want because unless your an orangutang you can't reach first and third. Last time I had this car at PI was in about 2005 and it did 1:50 without the splitter on Falken GRBs.

I was told by an old experienced WS Fitter that they were functional and necessary for the seal to maintain the correct profile and when you look at one with it in compared to one with it out, I reckon he was right as the strip pushes the outer lip closer into the body, especially on the corners. I then proceeded to avoid fitting it for the next 15 years during which time they got carefully stored away, lost, found, bent, looked for, bent, lost, in the way, bent. I then needed them for my current car but had to panel beat them, still missing one corner Dahhhhh!

Thanks Scott, that's awesome, no need to weld mounting points to the rails. I hate doing anything that can't be reversed back to original. Good luck with the unis, I found original unis seemed stronger than aftermarket replacements.

Man this things gunna fly. Nice work, love the paintwork and your on the home stretch. Hey Scott, when you did your engine mounts, did you take them off the rails or from the xmember? - from the photos it looks like they come off the xmember. Also, I really hate to bring this up at this point but those outer unis won't last, I know this from experience, breaking several with only a turbo 2.8, near standard height, easy clutch and never any burnouts etc. They will take some torque but eventually you will run over a small bump while accelerating and they'll go bang and bash around under the floor doing damage to the floor and suspension.

It's been a while since the last update. Been busy rebuilding the engine after a bit of a mishap. Took it to Winton for Friday test & tune and after about 5 sessions I had the mapping pretty close so decided to get a couple of clear laps for times. Coming off the old back straight out of the left hander, 2nd gear at 8000 RPM I missed third and hit first, it happened so easily, dog boxes aren't too picky about which gear they accept, they just grab it and go. It was a clutchless shift with just a blip off the throttle so she must have gone close to 10000 RPM. No bang, clunks or any bad noises, just a loud buzzing noise of the engine spinning so fast and loss of power. Actually while I rolled to a stop I'm thinking the big rev must have affected the crank angle sensor causing it to stall, the motor had no abnormal sounds, I even whacked it back in gear and tried to restart it but it wouldn't fire up. Little did I know but there was a huge fire out the exhaust from the unburnt fuel so I'll have to repaint the tail light surround. That's wishful thinking for you, got towed back to the pits and pulled No 1 plug and it was then that I realised how naïve I'd been. It was hard to get out due to the other end being chewed up like it had been through a mincer. Instantly I knew I'd dropped a valve then sat down for a bit and pondered how easily this happened and what I could do to avoid it happening again. On pulling the engine down I discovered No 1 had dropped 2 valve heads and there was a huge hole right through the piston so you can see the conrod. There were bits of valve, valve guide and valve seats in all four cylinders, in the inlet manifold and exhaust. The turbo was completely seized by molten aluminium and there were dings in the cylinder from bits bouncing around in there. I thought I'd need another complete engine so I started looking around. FJs have become very rare since I brought my last one and for a couple of weeks I had no luck at all, then I was lucky enough to be talking to a Datto 1600 shop and they thought they knew a Guy who had a head. When I had a look at the head I noticed that he also had a complete engine but he was not interested in selling it. After a while, however he decided to sell the lot so I now have a head and complete spare engine. After closer inspection I'm hoping that I only need the head to fix this engine. The machine shop seems to think the 40thou bore (to take the 1mm over size Wiseco forgies I had hanging around for such an occasion) will take out the dings in the cylinder walls and the crank is fine. I didn't want to chance the old No1 rod though it must have been super strong to withstand the forces trying to compress metal valves into aluminium combustion chamber so I got some H beam rods and ARP bolts. The biggest surprise is that the turbo appears to be perfect after I soaked the turbine wheel and housing in caustic to dissolve the ally off them so that should save some money. I'll probably also go for slightly more aggressive cams for this build just to fill the top end in a bit as the current power band starts to drop off around 6000RPM. At the moment the parts are at the machine shop waiting to get done so I invented a first gear lockout mechanism so I can't slam it directly from second into first without sliding the shifter across neutral out of the first/second plane before sliding it back then into first. It worked out pretty well as it naturally forces the direction towards third rather than rely on the springs. I set my seat a couple of inches back prior to when this happened and noted that the change from second to third was a stretch so i'll extend the shifter closer as well.

Awesome car Gordo, great job, absolutely love it!!! And 48's outa the bag gotto be happy with that. My prediction is there may be a few more than 2 to 3 seconds there to be had at the Island. Only question I have is how long will you resist the temptation to whack a turbo on that bad boy?

Just check the carby size. It looks like they are 2 bolt which might be the small 1.5 inch like 180Bsss. I had a manifold like that once - 6cyl with 1.5" carbs that had only 2 bolts holding them on and small ports to the head, not sure what it was off, maybe an L20. If the holes are 1.75" and the port sizes are the same ,no problems use the one with the least castings. .

Man that's low might smoke a bit going down the road. Seriously though, if you have 14" wheels and want the wheel to the top of the wheel arch, I reckon you'll only have about an inch of bump, if that. One thing I'm confused about is that you said "standard springs" but why is it sitting so high at the rear? Did you replace the original struts? Those old springs should be sagged out a bit by now.

Don't just get shorter springs. The best thing to do is to rip out your springs and bump stops on one side, disconnect the sway bar links, reassemble your suspension and wheels then measure how much bump travel you will be left with when you lower your car by jacking up the wheel until it stops. I've found on both '75 and 74 260 2 seaters there was very limited bump travel left even when I only lowered the car slightly. I drove my '75 260 for years wondering why no matter what brakes I ran, it would never pull up well. Tried so many bigger brake combos, balance valves, pads etc but it would just not pull up as hard as it should have. I developed an uncanny talent for finding appropriate escape routes in corners, between tire walls, Marshal towers, trees and rockeries. Eventually worked out it was bottoming out at the front under brakes. The only solution, especially if using softer springs, is to cut the struts and use shorter inserts. To give you an idea, in my case for my 1000Kg '74 260 race car, on which I run soft springs (F182lbs/in, R 210) I think I cut about 145mm from the rear and used the front inserts and about 50mm from the front and used VW golf inserts. Not sure which model Golf but it would have been an older model. This gives me a total (with bump stops removed) of 130mm bump on the front and 150mm on the rear. On a smooth track like Phillip Island I use up 90mm of the front and 135mm of the rear bump travel with standard size bump stops installed (about 40 - 50mm long I think). Your car with standard springs, extra weight and rougher roads but less grippy tyres will probably use a little more not counting pot holes, rocks and small fury animals. You can cut above or below the spring perch but that will depend on your spring length and wheel size for optimal clearances. Watch out for inner wheel / tyre to spring clearance and coil bind. With soft springs you probably want at least 100mm of bump before hitting the bump stops which should be gradual, not just a solid lump of rubber. Spend some time measuring it up and you will avoid some mysterious handling problems which will make your car unpredictable and dangerous.

Thanx dudes, it's not a perfect finish but I'm happy knowing that the body is about as good as they get and it'll out last me unless it's destroyed in a catastrophic 250 KPH ball of fire in turn one at Philip Island, then again still could out last me. Finally I got the windscreen Guy to come around and put a new screen in and refit the rear screen. I've done it before but getting it to seal properly is not so easy. Cost $340 to supply and fit the screen and refit the rear which I thought was not too bad - took about 3 hours and the Guy was an expert at fitting the old school rubber seals without damaging any paint and I'd have no hesitation recommending him (very unusual for me, cause I don't trust anyone so I end up doing everything myself). His name is Stuart (Windscreen Master - 0400747506). Screens in, I quickly chucked the wing and splitter back on, pretty well all done now, just a dyno sesh to thrash out the tune and a Friday at Winton to fine tune and sort out the mechanicals, then she'll be good to go. Probably need to go to bigger wheels, don't want to but there is no good rubber that I know of that comes in 14" anymore. I'm running the Toyo R888's in 225/50/14 but they are a full 3 seconds a lap behind the old Falken GRBs which I built the brakes and suspension around, however they haven't been available for a long time. I think the A050 Yokies might be the best bet but I want at least 205/60/14 and the widest they come in is 195.

Hey Bryan3976. Not sure what you want to put it on but if it is an L series, blow through will probably cost you more than a cheap aftermarket ECU and 280zx type inlet manifold. I had one on a 180B and it was good but it had a turbo specific Webber carby and all the tuning was already done. You need a float which won't collapse under pressure, fuel reg that has a vacuum diaphragm so it keeps the same pressure under boost, probably you'll need to modify the dizzy so it retards more under boost, plus you will need an electric fuel pump if your is a mechanical one. You also need to get a really good seal to the carby which is easier to say than do. Then when you get it all together you need to tune it, which is a challenge with any carby unless it is designed for a turbo. Holleys aren't too bad because of the range of jets and parts available. Get an old V3 Wolf or microtech with a hand controller and see how easy it really is. Honestly you'll never look back.

Gav, it's not ISO free, I live on a big block, luckily there is plenty of distance between Neighbours. I run my evap cooler flat out without the water and direct it through the garage. It works great as it pressurises the house so no fumes at all get in but you do get a little dust in the paint. I would have hired a booth, however I wanted to paint all parts separately so there was no overspray anywhere and I could un-bolt every panel without cracking the paint (especially all the front panels). I would have had to be super organised (which I'm not) or go back to the booth a dozen times to do it all.

It felt good to get the colour on, finally after all the preparation. Now I could start putting it back together. Ahh just chuck everything back on and get it back on the track. Umm. NOPE! Damm paint job’s too good now to whack on greasy old struts, suspension parts, motor etc. It’s like all of a sudden I caught Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and had to clean, sandblast, paint, or polish everything going back on the car, kept telling myself “it’s only a race car” but all reason went out the window and I couldn’t help it. Old bolts & nuts...........Ahhhhhhh Alright, OK then I’ll clean them up & paint them Jeeze it’s a horrible disease and I think I needed help, luckily the beer fridge was stocked with plenty of medicine. Did a couple of improvements along the way such as build a smaller, lighter adjustable rear bar with a huge range of adjustment, install some bigger injectors, PPG dogbox, CV half shafts, better brake ducts and replaced the trusty Wolf ECU with a Motec M4. In the process of wiring in the M4 I cleaned up the old harness disguised as a bird’s nest. The sum as it stands now. [Loss of the CGAFF (no care factor) = + 3 seconds Loss of 20 Kg excess bog and paint = - 1 second Extra 2Kg in the door skins = +0.1 seconds Loss of 5Kg bog in front guards = -0.3 seconds Loss of the golf ball aero effect on the front guards = + 0.1 seconds. Loss of another 5Kg of bog in the dog leg section = -0.3sec. Gain of 1KG new metal replacing air and race tape = +0.1 sec Donation of 5Kg of sticky black Goup of unknown origin (under body deadener) = -0.3sec. Choice of colour (red) = -1.4 sec. Better rear bar = -0.3 sec Faster gear shifts = -0.2 sec More fuel = more grunt = -0.3 sec So that's -0.8 seconds a lap. Not too bad.

It’s been a while since my last post. Sorry, was busy getting plenty done on the Z. Finally after much procrastinating it was a last minute decision to go with Audi Laser red over another VW /Audi colour (SUMMERBLAU) which I wanted but could not get a consistent sample to remove any doubt about the variations in colour, besides, everyone knows red is faster than blue!! I used PPG 2K and sprayed it in my garage and am pretty happy with the result considering I was battling against the complete Australian population of tiny black gnats, 40 degree heat, dust storms, crappy light and not so perfect eyesight.